Aarhus: The 2014 Thomas Cup champions – Japan, recovered from being one match down to beat Canada 4-1 in the 2020 Thomas Cup finals on Sunday.
Japan trailed 1-0 after losing its opening men’s singles through World No. 13 Kanta Tsuneyama.
Ever since returning from Dubai a few weeks ago as a sparring partner for the Tokyo Olympics men’s singles champion – Viktor Axelsen, Brian Yang of Canada has taken his level of play to a new level. The World No. 39 Canadian pushed World No. 3, Anders Antonsen of Denmark to the distance before losing 18-21, 19-21 in the first Group C match at last week’s Sudirman Cup, and successfully defeated World No. 7 Jonatan Christie 9-21, 22-20, 21-18 in the tie against Indonesia.
Yang was leading most of the game facing Kanta Tsuneyama in the Thomas Cup Group D first men’s singles match on Sunday to take the first set 21-18. Tsuneyama fended off a valiant comeback by Yang in the second, when the Canadian came from 16-19 to tie the score at 19-19 before losing to the Japanese 19-21.
The Canadian was on fire in the decider, upsetting Tsuneyama with a convincing 21-13 to give Canada a 1-0 lead.
Japan’s World No. 16 Kenta Nishimoto came out to erase the deficit when he beat Jason Anthony Ho-shue 21-14, 21-6 to level the overall score at 1-1.
Takuro Hoki/Taichi Saito, Kodai Naraoka, Akira Koga/Yuta Watanabe secured the win for Japan with victories in the first men’s doubles, third men’s singles, and second men’s doubles match with an overall score of 4-1.
Below are the day two results of the 2020 Thomas and Uber Cup finals:
2020 Thomas Cup Results (October 10, 2021):
Thomas Cup – Group D, Japan vs. Canada 4-1
Thomas Cup – Group C, India vs. Netherlands 5-0
Thomas Cup – Group C, China vs. Tahiti 5-0
2020 Uber Cup Results (October 10, 2021):
Uber Cup – Group B, India vs. Spain 3-2
Uber Cup – Group B, Thailand vs. Scotland 5-0
Uber Cup – Group C, Chinese Taipei vs. Egypt 5-0
Uber Cup – Group D, China vs. Malaysia 5-0
Uber Cup – Group D, Denmark vs. Canada 4-1
